The German government announced on Monday (9) the temporary introduction of controls at all of the country’s land borders with the aim of “reducing irregular migration and improving internal security” starting on September 16.
The German Interior Ministry said it had notified the European Commission today of its intention to introduce temporary controls at the borders with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark over the next six months, which would be in addition to those already in place in border areas with Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland.
“We are strengthening our internal security and continuing our tough stance against irregular immigration,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a speech in Berlin announcing the new controls.
The Social Democratic minister stressed that this measure includes the possibility of rejecting migrants at the border who are detained with false documentation or who do not have visas that allow them to enter Germany.
Since October 2023, when temporary border controls were introduced with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland, 30,000 people who tried to enter irregularly from those countries have already been turned back, the minister said.
Faeser clarified that currently German police can only turn away individuals at the border who do not submit an asylum application.
However, his department has been studying how to carry out “massive rejections” in the future and has found a legally solid formula that it will present this Tuesday (10) in a meeting with the opposition and regional governments.
Since an attacker under investigation for extremism killed three people in a knife attack last month in western Germany, migration has once again been one of the issues at the top of the country’s political agenda.
Shortly afterwards, the Interior Ministry presented a package of measures to strengthen gun rights, reduce benefits for asylum seekers already registered in other countries and facilitate the deportations of violent criminals, which was approved on Monday in the Council of Ministers.
Meanwhile, the Christian Democrat opposition has offered the governing coalition of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals a state pact on migration, on the condition that in future asylum seekers will also be turned away at German borders.
At the end of last month, the country decided to deport a group of 28 Pakistani citizens convicted of crimes committed on German territory.
In the regional elections in the states of Saxony and Thuringia on September 1, the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD), a party that has made tougher immigration policy a pillar of its program, came first and second respectively, with a third of the vote.
The expectation is that it will also obtain good results in the state of Brandenburg, where voting will take place on September 22.
Temporary controls on the border with Austria will be in place until November 1, and until December 15 on the borders with Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Poland, although the Interior Ministry has indicated that these measures should also be extended to match the other borders. (With EFE Agency)
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